On 03/05/2004, at 6:23 PM, Rosemary Horton wrote:
I'm seriously considering getting a laptop. The main reason is for
presentations vi digital projectors at conferences often connecting
to the net and for working on websites. What should I consider ibook
or powerbook?
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New PowerBooks and iBooks: Which is the Best Value?
by Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
April 20th 2004
Which of the new PowerBooks should you buy? As Ron Carlson reported for
IGM yesterday, Apple has revamped the entire PowerBook and iBook lines.
So which one is right for you?
First, the prices. The PowerBooks now start at US$1,599 for the ‘base’
Combo PowerBook G4 12.1”. And the specification is anything but base.
The CPU now runs at 1.33GHz, the same as the PB 17” you could buy last
week. It runs a reasonably speedy slot-loading 24x CD burner and packs
a fairly spacious 60GB hard drive.
If portability, rather than screen real estate and a l-on-g feature
set, is part of your criteria – maybe go with the SuperDrive 12.1”. It
packs in much of the fruit that comes with the 15.1” Combo edition:
hard drive size, RAM – but gets a 4x SuperDrive as well.
The value pick of the new PBs however is the 15.1” Combo. It’s very
tempting for little more than the 12.1” SuperDrive, particularly if you
already have an external DVD burner. For US$200 more, you get more
power, an arguably better video card in the Radeon 9700 (still with
64MB VRAM though), not to mention that 15.2” widescreen display.
S-video output, a must for mobile professionals, is standard on the 15”
and 17” models. So too is FireWire 800, which isn’t available on the
PB-12.
The SuperDrive 15” and 17” PowerBooks add even more power – up to
1.5GHz – and still more features, including the seductive backlit
keyboard. The 17”, which weighs in at a hefty 6.9 pounds (we’re almost
talking Wallstreet here, which was 7.7 pounds).
The iBooks
iBooks start at US$1,099 for the 12.1” Combo edition, with the ‘better’
14.1” Combo tipping the scales at US$1,299. US$1,499 gets you a Combo
drive 14.1” with better specs. A slot-loading DVD burner is a BTO
option – and only on the 14.1” models.
The iBooks make do with the lesser Radeon 9200 with 32MB VRAM, but
these iBooks do get the benefit of not only faster G4s (up to 1.2GHz),
but also increased memory capacity (1.25GB).
The shoehorning of the G4 into the iBooks in the previous revision,
plus the absence of a lot of 15/17” PB specs on the 12.1” PowerBook,
makes you wonder who the market is for the PB-12. After all, the base
iBook is not that much less powerful than the base PB-12. And, now that
14.1” iBooks are available with SuperDrives for less than the entry
ticket into a PB-12, it makes you think about the value proposition.
The iBook is now nothing less than a bargain in any form. Aside from
1000bT, DVI out and no PC card slot, it is a well-featured PowerBook in
virtually every respect. You can option in BlueTooth and the
SuperDrive. Plus it’s tougher than the Aluminium PBs. As ever, it comes
with a tremendous software bundle (it’s not that long ago that PBs came
with the OS, FaxSTF and that was about it).
My only complaint [aside from the absence of the G5], really, is the
poverty of RAM on most of these models. 256MB doesn’t really cut it,
and Apple clearly makes a dime or two at retail by selling customers
another DIMM.
But regardless of which model you pick, all are good value. Personally,
I like the 15.2” form factor and weight, along with the features. But
many of us may still want to wait for the PowerBook G5 …
---
Richard Kay
Fremantle
Western Australia
